Ill. Panel Says News Report Bars Law Firm's FCA Suit

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois appellate court on Friday upheld the dismissal of a whistleblower lawsuit brought by Forde & O'Meara LLP accusing a company of secretly assigning its interests in unpaid state bills to unapproved entities to duck taxes, agreeing that a prior public disclosure of the alleged scheme in a news report bars the firm's claims.

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ADM Faces Class Action Over Purported Dark Web Data Leak

By Joyce Hanson

A former Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. employee filed a proposed class action in Illinois federal court claiming the agricultural giant failed to protect workers' personal information during a ransomware attack this month that has been attributed to a cybercrime group.

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Ill. Court Won't Undo $41M Stroke Malpractice Verdict

By Mike Curley

An Illinois appeals panel won't upend a $41 million verdict against OSF Healthcare System in a suit over a man's debilitating stroke, saying Illinois law tolls the statute of limitations based on the plaintiff's disability, regardless of if his wife or attorneys could have filed suit.

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Illinois Powerhouse: Clifford Law Offices

By Anna Sanders

Clifford Law Offices PC secured hundreds of millions in settlements and verdicts in the past year, including more than $100 million in confidential medical malpractice agreements and over $50 million from transportation litigation.

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Kraft Heinz Says Insurers Won't Cover Processed Food Suits

By Danielle Ferguson

Chubb units and Liberty Mutual are wrongfully refusing to cover Kraft Heinz's defense costs for several lawsuits blaming the food company's "ultra-processed foods" for consumers' diabetes or fatty liver disease diagnoses, costing the company millions of dollars, Kraft Heinz said in a Pennsylvania state court complaint.

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Fed. Circ. Says Profit Measurement Patents Ineligible

By Adam Lidgett

The Federal Circuit on Monday said claims in a trio of patents relating to management profit measures were not patent-eligible, handing a win to software company Teradata Operations Inc. and industrial supply business W. W. Grainger Inc. in a suit accusing them of infringement.

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Vape Co. Gets $304K Judgment Over Unpaid Order

By Jonathan Capriel

The Illinois-based owner of the Urb vape brand has secured a $300,000 judgment in Illinois federal court against a California company that ordered tens of thousands of empty vape devices but never paid for them, but it won't be getting attorney fees.

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Morgan Lewis Adds Amazon Senior Counsel In Chicago

By Christine DeRosa

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP has grown its labor and employment offerings with the addition of a senior corporate counsel at Amazon, the firm said Monday.

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Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers

Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.

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Greenberg Traurig Hit With Action Over Client Data Breach

By Matt Perez

A proposed class of Greenberg Traurig LLP clients said the New York law firm failed to secure their personal data prior to a preventable data breach and delayed notifying clients of the breach for two weeks, in an action filed over the weekend in New York federal court seeking injunctive and other equitable relief to protect client data.

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Tesla Atty Misled Witness Days Before Bias Trial, Judge Hears

By Dorothy Atkins

The California Civil Rights Department asked a California judge for a protective order Monday on the first day of a bench trial over claims Tesla Inc. fostered racism at its Fremont factory, after a witness testified that an in-house Tesla attorney recently called him and misled him into believing he represented the agency.

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New Calif. Law Bars Legal Funders From Influencing Litigation

By Jack Karp

Corporate investors and litigation funders will be barred from influencing litigation strategy in California under a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fenwick's Jessica Kaempf

By Theresa Schliep

Jessica Kaempf of Fenwick & West LLP is a pragmatic yet tenacious attorney whose representation of her clients has earned her plaudits from Kathi Vidal of Winston Taylor, who praised Kaempf as part of a Law360 series celebrating women litigators.

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$1.35M Class Deal Reached Over Botched Calif. Bar Exam

By Emily Johnson

Takers of the February 2025 California bar exam that was marred by technical failures have agreed to settle their proposed class action against the proctor for $1.35 million, while the company also agreed to complete quality checks before proctoring future bar examinations, according to a motion seeking preliminary approval in federal court.

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Ex-Prosecutor Escapes Jan. 6 Atty's Defamation Suit

By Jared Foretek

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Monday won judgment on the pleadings in a defamation case brought by attorney Stefan Passantino, who had represented Cassidy Hutchinson, after Passantino alleged Weissmann had defamed him when saying he'd "coached" Hutchinson "to lie" to the January 6th Select Committee.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week dismissed a challenge to Alteryx Inc.'s $4.4 billion take-private sale, resolved a fight over the removal of a security technology company's director and declined to let Empery Digital Inc. immediately appeal a proxy contest ruling.

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